Hello everybody,
The purpose of this post is to solicit experts' opinions and recommendations as to the best way to proceed about trying to bring my adult sister to Canada from overseas.
I immigrated to Canada in 1999 and have since become a Canadian citizen. I am gainfully employed and have never declared bankruptcy or been in any kind of legal trouble.
My 60 year old sister is originally from Azerbaijan (one of the former Soviet republics) but presently lives in Germany as a refugee claimant with the status that allows her to remain there indefinitely on humanitarian grounds. She receives decent social assistance from the German government and is not subjected to any persecution, discrimination, etc. The only hardship (and in her case, quite a significant one) comes from the fact that she is all alone. Her adult daughter, my niece, who is married and has two kids, immigrated to Canada in 2007 as an independent-class immigrant. Up until my niece's move to Canada, they had always lived together as one multi-generation family, so naturally my sister now misses her daughter and her two grand sons very much and drives herself to depression with thoughts of dying in a foreign land without her loved ones by her side.
Returning back to Azerbaijan is not an option for my sister either because she has no close family left there, no source of income or place to live. Her situation is further complicated by the fact that her mother was Armenian, and people of even partial Armenian background are not exactly welcomed in Azerbaijan because of the on-going trouble between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Given all these circumstances, my niece and myself would now like to explore the possibility of bringing my sister to Canada on a permanent basis.
Because of my sister's age and lack of special high-demand skills she does not qualify for the independent-class immigration.
My niece's ability to sponsor her mother for family-class immigration is hindered by her family's tight financial situation. Her husband is a construction trade who works somewhat irregularly (and will probably work even more irregularly in the near future due to the shrinking construction market). My niece herself is a full-time student and has no income. Their youngest boy goes to the kindergarten paid in full by a Manitoba government's child-care program for low-income families.
Since it's not likely that their financial situation will drastically improve in the next couple of years we would like to consider other avenues, such as humanitarian/compassionate appeal.
To that end my sister has twice applied for a visitor visa, once for a single-entry and the second time for a multiple-entry visa. The reason for visiting Canada stated in her application was to see her daughter and grand children at least once a year. We had hoped that, once she came to Canada, she would apply to stay here permanently on humanitarian/compassionate grounds. Unfortunately, both her applications were refused (a very disappointing, if not totally unexpected, outcome).
Basically, I just hope that the immigration professionals on this forum can point me in the right direction as to what can be done under the circumstances to bring my sister to Canada with the highest likelihood of success and preferably in the shortest amount of time.
Is family-class sponsorship her only option?
In which case, is there a way for me to co-sponsor my sister together with my niece?
Or is there yet another way to attempt to bring her here on humanitarian/compassionate grounds without her first coming to Canada as a visitor (which is highly unlikely given the two refusals to-date)?
Any suggestions/opinions will be greatly appreciated.
The purpose of this post is to solicit experts' opinions and recommendations as to the best way to proceed about trying to bring my adult sister to Canada from overseas.
I immigrated to Canada in 1999 and have since become a Canadian citizen. I am gainfully employed and have never declared bankruptcy or been in any kind of legal trouble.
My 60 year old sister is originally from Azerbaijan (one of the former Soviet republics) but presently lives in Germany as a refugee claimant with the status that allows her to remain there indefinitely on humanitarian grounds. She receives decent social assistance from the German government and is not subjected to any persecution, discrimination, etc. The only hardship (and in her case, quite a significant one) comes from the fact that she is all alone. Her adult daughter, my niece, who is married and has two kids, immigrated to Canada in 2007 as an independent-class immigrant. Up until my niece's move to Canada, they had always lived together as one multi-generation family, so naturally my sister now misses her daughter and her two grand sons very much and drives herself to depression with thoughts of dying in a foreign land without her loved ones by her side.
Returning back to Azerbaijan is not an option for my sister either because she has no close family left there, no source of income or place to live. Her situation is further complicated by the fact that her mother was Armenian, and people of even partial Armenian background are not exactly welcomed in Azerbaijan because of the on-going trouble between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Given all these circumstances, my niece and myself would now like to explore the possibility of bringing my sister to Canada on a permanent basis.
Because of my sister's age and lack of special high-demand skills she does not qualify for the independent-class immigration.
My niece's ability to sponsor her mother for family-class immigration is hindered by her family's tight financial situation. Her husband is a construction trade who works somewhat irregularly (and will probably work even more irregularly in the near future due to the shrinking construction market). My niece herself is a full-time student and has no income. Their youngest boy goes to the kindergarten paid in full by a Manitoba government's child-care program for low-income families.
Since it's not likely that their financial situation will drastically improve in the next couple of years we would like to consider other avenues, such as humanitarian/compassionate appeal.
To that end my sister has twice applied for a visitor visa, once for a single-entry and the second time for a multiple-entry visa. The reason for visiting Canada stated in her application was to see her daughter and grand children at least once a year. We had hoped that, once she came to Canada, she would apply to stay here permanently on humanitarian/compassionate grounds. Unfortunately, both her applications were refused (a very disappointing, if not totally unexpected, outcome).
Basically, I just hope that the immigration professionals on this forum can point me in the right direction as to what can be done under the circumstances to bring my sister to Canada with the highest likelihood of success and preferably in the shortest amount of time.
Is family-class sponsorship her only option?
In which case, is there a way for me to co-sponsor my sister together with my niece?
Or is there yet another way to attempt to bring her here on humanitarian/compassionate grounds without her first coming to Canada as a visitor (which is highly unlikely given the two refusals to-date)?
Any suggestions/opinions will be greatly appreciated.
